A Season of Innovation: Inside Nutrien's Champaign Innovation Farm

Across our network of Innovation Farms, our teams evaluate technologies, products and practices that help growers get more out of every acre.

While this work happens year-round, summer 2026 was an especially busy one at the innovation farm in Champaign, Illinois, one of four locations in Nutrien's Innovation Farm Network across the United States.

In 2019, Nutrien purchased 282 acres of farmland in Champaign with the vision of creating a hub for agronomic research, innovation and collaboration. Today, the facility demonstrates Nutrien's commitment to advancing agriculture through full-acre innovation, integrating advanced analytical services, supporting soil health initiatives and conducting agronomic trials at commercial scale. The Champaign location also serves as a center for employee training, customer engagement, team collaboration and industry events.

Sharing Agronomic Insights from the Field

This summer, Nutrien agronomist Tim Sickman provided firsthand insights from the Champaign Innovation Farm as part of the Inside the Decision social media series. Tim highlighted the role of sulfur nutrition in both corn and soybean production and shared how agronomic decisions are evaluated under real-world conditions.

Throughout the season, the Champaign team investigated different products, different rates and some different placement systems to really take a deep dive into sulfur nutrition. More of Tim's reporting can be found across Nutrien' social media channels, including YouTube.

A Front Row Seat to What's Next

This summer also marked Nutrien's inaugural Equipment and Innovation Day, providing employees, customers and strategic suppliers with a firsthand look at emerging technologies, equipment and capabilities shaping the future of agriculture.

Hosted in Champaign, the event brought together innovative equipment, technology, and operational capabilities to demonstrate how Nutrien is working to help growers operate more efficiently while strengthening how we serve them.

The event highlighted the power of integration, bringing together equipment, technology, supply chain capabilities and agronomic expertise to create better outcomes for customers and support ongoing innovation across the agricultural value chain.

At the center of the event was Nutrien's Innovation Farm Network, which plays an important role in evaluating new technologies, equipment and operational approaches to understand how they perform together before broader implementation across the business.

A Global Hub for Learning and Collaboration

The summer season also welcomed international visitors to the Champaign Innovation Farm. In July, Australia's top-performing agronomists visited as part of a tour across the United States to explore leading agronomic practices, research and technologies throughout the Nutrien network. The facility also hosted members of the Loveland Products team from Brazil.

In addition to Champaign, Nutrien operates Innovation Farms in Selma, California; Winterville, Mississippi; and Owensboro, Kentucky. Together, the network focuses on five key components of agricultural innovation: equipment, technology, products, practices and people.

Much of the data at our innovation farms are captured at the scale of farming with the use of commercial-grade equipment, latest precision technology, and production quality analytical services.

The activity at the Champaign Innovation Farm this summer highlighted the important role Nutrien's Innovation Farm Network plays in evaluating emerging technologies, agronomic practices and operational approaches at scale. By generating data-backed insights and fostering collaboration across regions, the network helps advance innovation that can benefit growers and support the future of agriculture.

To learn more about the Innovation Farm Network, visit here.